NASA wants predictive analytics for drone-crash casualties
By
Susan Miller
The agency is asking for risk management and decision-making tools that can help it accurately estimate the deaths and injuries caused by a drone that crashes into a populated area.
In a new request for quotations, NASA is asking for risk management and decision-making tools that can help it accurately estimate the casualties and fatalities caused by a drone that crashing into a populated area.
Currently, NASA said it is using county-level 2010 census data to calculate the number of people it projects would be affected by a crash along a drone's flightpath. But because drone operators change flight plans, people on the ground move from place to place throughout the day and data from location-based services varies, NASA wants technology to help it "estimate updated dynamic population data throughout the flight at more refined area of interest."
The request comes as agencies, industry and researchers are working to integrate drones in the national airspace. A wide range of technologies and polices are needed to advance beyond visible line of sight flying, protect against mid-air collisions and keep people on the ground safe when unmanned systems are flying overhead.
Although drone operators currently need a special waiver from the Federal Aviation Administration to fly over populated areas, several of the 10 projects recently selected for the Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration Pilot Program will help advance the technologies and regulations to make drone flights over people safe.
Read the full RFQ here.
This article first appeared in GCN, an FCW sister publication.